[delphypop]

In theory what you are saying makes no sense. If you buy a pro tools rig is Digi responsible for it when it is at your studio?

I'm comparing the act of software piracy protection, (which is the responsiblity of the software creator and benefits the software creator only, yet with ilok it costs us the software user) to the protection of my property, which is my responsiblity, in a humourous way.
I don't for a second expect digi to contibute to the security of my poperty, so why am I expected to pay for the upkeep of the protection of their property, or third party software people etc. Not that I dislike digi, hey I love em for the fun their product gives me, just that I'm questioning the trend in their and others software protection.

Ilok gives you the ability to transfer from one Ilok to another. If you knew the Ilok was going out on you then transfer the assets to another Ilok.

I intend to, because I have to, but as mentioned in my post I could not syncronise my keys with the site and to find out why not I have to give my credit card details to be chaged $25 for online help. charming. also I'm up for $80 for a new key. sweet, the costs for the protection from piracy for the software creators just keep piling up.

If you have purchased a plug in then you would have to already authed and DL'ed the Ilok software.

nope, I purchased an HD3 rig and got simm card authorisation chips for virus, reverb one, samplecell and a few others. I've never had to visit the ilok site.

I am sure you double check your mic locker to make sure what you placed in there is still there, same with software assets. There is no better way to protect your assets then Ilok at this time. The cost is less then if you where to have your assets protected with an insurance company.

sigh, you're missing the point. Ilok doesn't protect MY assets. it protects software authors assets.
it offers no protection to me, it merely stops the programs from being freely pirated. I'm cool with that, I just don't thik I should have to pay for the privilage.

Ilok is a third party. Digi only makes a small portion of the plug ins available to you. I don’t see how they should be responsible for other company’s assets.

This is true, not all plugins using ilok are made by digi, I know this, but the third party they have farmed out the responsiblity for the administration of their piracy protection to used in combination with their platform (protools) is imposing costs to the buyers of the software, and the system keeps the cost ongoing. the key is going to fault and wear, there's no avoiding it, and each time it does your up for more costs. and when the web authorisation doesn't function as it should and you have to contact ilok, you're up for more expenses.
maybe question response authorising was a pain to install but atleast it didn't cost you to run it and keep it.